The work-life balance of men and women while experiencing work pressure

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The work-life balance of men and women while

experiencing work pressure

Master Thesis Human Resource Management University of Groningen

Faculty of Economics and Business

Martine Baars S2580381

m.h.baars@student.rug.nl

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The work-life balance of men and women while experiencing

work pressure

“Does work pressure have a negative direct effect on work-life balance of employees and

would gender moderate this effect?”

Abstract

Both women and men are searching for a balance between their work demands and their responsibilities at home. Because of the introduction of a larger number of women in employment lately, there have been changes in the way terms of employment are offered to men and women. Therefore, the question whether gender would influence the negative relation between work pressure and work-life balance is researched. This paper studies different aspects of work pressure namely, time pressure; irregular working hours; the time employees prefer to work; the time employees actually work and job autonomy. Results show that work pressure indeed influences the work-life balance of employees in a negative way. Some differences in gender are supported but there is no interaction effect of gender

supported in this study. Possibly because men and women still value their roles at work and at home according to the traditional family-model (Bedeian et al, 1988).

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3 1. Introduction

The line between the working life and life at home has been diminished, whereby the work-life balance of people needs and gets more attention lately (Yadav,2014). Someone’s personal life and work do not have to be conflicting priorities. Instead, they have to be complementarities of each other to live a full life. The term work-life balance can be described as the way in which work practices support and acknowledge the needs of the workers to achieve a balance between their work lives and the demands of their family lives (Yadav, 2014). Lockwood & Nancy (2003) describe work-life balance as an equilibrium state in which the demands of someone’s job and the demands of someone’s personal life are equal.

Both women and men are searching for this balance and work-life balance is also a frequently discussed subject between men and women. Conflicting demands can be stressful which increases absenteeism and lowers productivity of employees. So for both employers and employees the issue of work-life balance is an important topic to pay attention to (Lockwood & Nancy, 2003).

Blanch & Aluja (2012) described the term work-life conflict as a conflict in two directions, work-to-family and family-to-work. When there is a work-family conflict, work and family, in both directions, cannot be combined and cause a conflict in both domains. According to Sharma and Nayak (2016), work-life balance is the ability to maintain a balance between work responsibilities and personal life. For this research, work-life balance was consciously described as a one-way relation, because the main focus of this study is on the balance from work-to-family and not the other way around.

Factors that could be important for a person’s work-life balance are the characteristics of the job they perform. Lately, there is a lot of competition and more emphasis on high productivity to outweigh the competition. This can be, according to Bloom and Reenen

(2006), of influence on the work-life balance of employed people. When there is need for high productivity, the workload will probably be high, which can cause work pressure (Bloom and Reenen, 2006). A job characteristic that can be important to the results of someone’s work-life balance, stated by van der Meer & Wielers (2013), is the way in which the working hours are characterized in a job. The way in which there is flexibility of working hours can be of influence on the extent of the existing work pressure in a job.

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4 McGinnity, 2009). Quratulain & Kahn (2015) state that work pressure contains the

experienced job demands of an employee. And job demands consist, according to Loscocco & Spitze (1990), of the amount of overtime worked and the extensiveness of the feeling of being overloaded experienced by the employee. Most research on work pressure concluded that the feeling of high work pressure results into job dissatisfaction (Quratulain & Kahn, 2015). When employees are not satisfied in their jobs this might not only affect their working life but also their life at home, and thus their work-life balance. Therefore, I want to investigate if and in what way work pressure directly influences the work-life balance of people.

Because of the introduction of a larger number of women in employment there are changes taking place in the working life and in the way terms of employment are offered (Verma, Bhal, Vrat, 2013). A lot of older research has focused on the stereotypes in working behaviour of men and women. Men are more likely to have an achievement orientation and are more likely to be competitive and dominant, whereas women are socially sensitive and care about others and are more likely to be understanding and helpful to others (Loscocco & Spitze, 1990; Keller, Meier, Gross & Semmer, 2013). When men and women experience high job demands, they might have different competencies and ways of dealing with these

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5 2. Theoretical Framework

2.1 Work-life balance

In the article of Direnzo et al. (2015), Voydanoff argues that achieving balance

between work demands and family domains is essential to be able to effectively participate in both domains. Work-life balance is all about regulating working patterns, so that everyone can find a way to combine their job with their other responsibilities. The pattern of, for example, caring responsibilities of mothers and fathers has changed lately (MacInnes, 2005). More employees have these responsibilities because nowadays there are more single parents or two-earner families (MacInnes, 2005). But also workers who are not parents have good reasons to balance their work-life situation (MacInnes, 2005).

Another definition is that work-life balance is derived of feelings of satisfaction and/or effectiveness in different life roles (Direnzo et al.,2015). In the research of Choudhary and Singh (2016), they describe work-family balance as the way you effectively divide your time between both work and family, which is not only about getting more spare time at home and less hours at work. However, in this research of Choudhary and Singh (2016), the direction from work towards family is emphasized, as it is in this paper. To have a clear definition of work-life balance I choose the definition as proposed by Lockwood & Nancy (2003) which describes work-life balance as an equilibrium state in which the demands of someone’s job and the demands of someone’s personal life are equal.

2.2 Work pressure

According to the literature, work pressure or work stress is related to the negative features of work, including; not having enough time to finish tasks; working long hours and role ambiguity (Bono et al. 2013) Work pressure is a job demand, which can be defined as the psychological, physical, organizational or social aspects of a job which require effort and are therefore associated with certain psychological or physiological costs (Bakker, Demerouti & Verbeke, 2004).

Looking at the literature, there are different ideas about the effects of high job

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6 determined by the ability of the worker to perform the tasks which are part of the job (Xie, 1996). So when the work pressure becomes too high, there are negative spill over effects at home. Karasek (1979) states that even though jobs are more demanding, active jobs lead to reduced depression and are associated with satisfaction. Jobs with low demands, thus passive jobs are dissatisfying. Empirical studies have mentioned that an immoderate workload or work pressure, more working hours than had been agreed upon and demands which causes role conflicts are indicators for a decrease in mental well-being of employees (Loscocco & Spitze, 1990).

2.3 The relation between work pressure and work-life balance

Research suggests that job demands are likely to be related to the work to life experiences of employees (Butler et al., 2005). According to Eikhof et al. (2007), work pressure, described as long working time, can cause problems in the sense that in life the responsibilities of caring for a family are of big influence. This is the reason why Eikhof et al. (2007) mentioned that it is important that work-life and life outside work need to be

separated. For example, it is important that parents will be enabled by their employer to spend time with their children and in addition perform their work in a good way (Eikhof et al., 2007).

Unbalance in the work-life situation of people can be derived from resources and demands attached to work and life roles (Vodanoff, 2004). For example, Frone, Yardley & Markel (1997) identified two predictors of work-life unbalance, one of which is the time employees have for work- or family activities. Whether someone chooses to spend more time on one or the other can cause a conflict in the work-life balance. Thus, the conflict between work and family can be directly influenced by the time commitment of a person (Frone, Yardley & Markel, 1997).

According to Greenhaus & Beutell (1985), the number of working hours per week are positively related to the conflict of work-family balance. Also, the frequency of working overtime and the irregularity of working hours are indicators of this conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). I want to imply that if there are job demands, such as longer working hours or working overtime, this will directly influence a person’s work-life balance in a negative way. According to Vodanoff (2004,) a conflict between work and family arises when work

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7 more difficult for employees to participate in the other role in life, this will negatively

influence work-life balance.

Hypothesis 1: Work pressure has a negative influence on the work-life balance of employees.

2.4 Moderation of the relation between work pressure and work-life balance

There is evidence regarding the role of gender differences in the interdependencies between family and working roles. With the term gender referring to the psychosocial state of being female or male (Powell and Greenhaus, 2010).

The outcomes range from no difference between men and women in work to life experiences to big differences in work to life experiences. There are higher levels of conflict in the work-life balance for women and men, or lower levels of conflict for both (Powell and Greenhaus, 2010). Powell and Greenhaus (2010) state that the social roles people identify themselves with, and the degree to which people psychologically identify with their work, might be different between men and women. The life role values of people play a role in this difference. This includes the values men or women hold regarding their work or family domains and which values are central, a priority or more important in their lives (Carlson and Kacmar, 2000).

The developing need for everyone to evolve is encouraging for women to participate more in the job market and pursue full-time careers (Duxbury and Higgins, 1991). Because of this development it is no longer only men who have hard time organizing a balance between work and family. Also women are more and more involved with job-related demands, which limits their involvement in family life. On the other hand, men are increasingly forced to shift their priorities more towards their families instead of their working-life (Duxbury and

Higgins, 1991).

Verma, Bhal & Vrat (2013) refer to the barrier for women to balance work and family. They state that women would be more inclined to choose family over work and would thereby omit advancements at work. In another study from Keller, Meier, Gross & Semmer (2013) it is stated that women and men differ concerning their relationship to work. There is said that women should place family first and should see work more as a duty in life than a satisfying experience (Keller et al, 2013).

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8 opposite for women, who in their role are responsible for the children and therefore

experience a bigger issue in maintaining their work-life balance (Bedeian, Burke & Moffett, 1988).

There is a lot of research on the relation between work demands and family

requirements. For example, the ‘traditional’ family model describes that for the husband the job performance is of biggest importance while wives are responsible for family demands (Bedeian et al, 1988). There are also different phenomenon’s which entangle current or previous composition of work and family relationships. These include socioeconomic

situations, such as single-parent and dual earner family assemblies, the increase of women in the workforce (Blanch and Aluja, 2012), the rise of economic pressures and the rising need for people to develop and evolve themselves and their achievements (Blanch and Aluja, 2012).

From the articles of Blanch and Aluja (2012), Powel and Greenhaus (2010) and Bedeian, Burke & Moffett (1988) there can be assumed that there are differences in gender regarding their work-role and family-role performance. Thus, gender differences are related to job related stress in the relationship with the personal life.

In the study of Collins (1993) there is researched how people of different genders experience job related tension in the accounting sector. This study shows, among other things, that female workers encounter high levels of stress because of tough time demands. This is jointly caused by the pressure on females, both outside and inside their workplace. Thus, the conflicting roles a woman has regarding work-to-life balance. Constantly trying to balance those roles can be associated with problems, especially with time pressure and high work demands (Collins, 1993).

However, some studies show that men and women do not differ in their reactions to working conditions and others state that both women and men do not often experience the same working conditions, which makes it hard to compare (Keller et al, 2013). Duxbury and Higgins (1991) show that it is harder for women to achieve control over the differing role demands at home and at work. Women working in full time jobs have the same workload as men and are expected to be as committed to their work as men, when they were previously used to give priority to their family roles (Duxbury and Higgins, 1991). It is hard to compare gender differences regarding work pressure (e.g. working overtime), because in the end women are still expected to have household labour as their primary responsibility, while men are expected to have household labour as their secondary responsibility(Cha, 2010).

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9 (Cha, 2010). Men who give backing and help, looking at their demanding jobs, do not

contribute substantially the same as women (Cha, 2010). So, it is not necessarily the case that women have troubles dealing with high work pressure, but rather with the role they are assigned to. Moreover, in the research of Collins (1993) female accountants find it more difficult to leave work related problems at work and have no stress at home.

Because of the different directions and outcomes of the previous studies and some studies were conducted with small samples, I would like to further investigate whether women respond more negatively to work pressure in their personal life.Further research reveals that women perceive greater unbalance than men between work and home demands (Bedeian et al, 1988).

Therefore, I imply, from the literature, that women still have more responsibilities at home and have more trouble to balance their work and life roles. Therefore, this would enforce the negative relationship of work pressure on work-life balance of employees. From the literature, I imply that men still have other priorities, which are more directed to work issues and therefore being a man would weaken this negative direct influence of work pressure on the work-life balance of employees.

Hypothesis 2: Work pressure has a negative effect on the work-life balance of employees and gender moderates this effect.

2.5 Conceptual Model

The hypotheses that arose from the theory mentioned in chapter two can be summarized in the following conceptual model:

Figure 1: Conceptual model of the relationship between work pressure and work-life balance with the influence of gender.

Work pressure Work-life balance

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10 3. Methods

3.1 Data and Sample

Data was collected using the European Social Survey, which is a cross-national survey conducted every two years across Europe since 2001. This survey measures behaviour

patterns, attitudes and beliefs of diverse populations. The main questionnaire is conducted by a computer assisted personal interview.

Work pressure and work-life balance, which are important measures for this research, were both included in the dataset from 2010. This dataset in the European Social Survey is called ‘round 5’. The sample of the full ESS consists of persons with an age of 15 year and over, with no upper age limit. The total sample size is 52.458. The study population for this research are working people from 18 to 63 years old, which will be further explained in the next section. Data of several different European countries are measured. For this study I wanted to focus on Dutch participants. Personal experience has shown that more and more women are involved in full time jobs and could therefore have similar problems, dealing with work pressure and work-life balance. Because the number of Dutch respondents is not a viable amount to obtain proper reliability, I expanded to other European countries. In the article of Anttila et al. (2014) analyses were made on working-time regimes based on the European Working Conditions Survey collected in 2010. In a dendrogram and agglomeration schedule this article shows clusters of working-time regimes. These clusters are analysed by taken into account; production regimes; forms of flexibility; employment systems; gender and working time regimes of different countries, which are dependent on regulatory, cultural and institutional environments of the society (Anttila et al. 2014). According to Anttila et al. (2014) the Netherlands can be included in a cluster with northern and central European countries, including: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands. Not all of these countries are included in the dataset. Looking at the dataset from 2010 ‘round 5’ the following countries are used for this research: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.The data was

downloaded from the website www.europeansocialservey.org.

3.2 Participants

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11 question: ‘total contracted hours per week in main job, overtime excluded’, a distinction is made between respondents who work 0-12 hours per week, 13-32 hours per week and more than 33 hours per week. The 0-12 group is called: small part-time; the 13-32 group will be called: big part-time; and the 33 and more group will be called: full time. A minimum age of 18 years is used, because in the Netherlands (and other European countries) the minimum age at which you can start working (part-time jobs in addition to study excluded) is 18 years. The upper age that is used in this research, taken into account the retirement ages in the included countries, is 63. From these delimitations, only the participants who answered all the

questions relevant to this research plus all the control variables are included.

The selection process of participants in this study is presented in Figure 2. The ESS ‘Round 5’ dataset contains data of 52.458 participants. 13.243 of those participants lived in the selected countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Finland, Denmark and Sweden). 5.123 participants answered all the questions relevant to this research, with this step excluding the participants with missing data. 5034 participants had the correct age and

answered ‘paid work’ in the past 7 days.

Figure 2: Flow-diagram of the selection of participants

ESS ‘Round 5’ (n = 52.458)

Living in selected counties (n = 13.243)

Relevant questions answered (n = 5.123)

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12 3.3 Measures

Work-life balance. The work-life balance of the respondents is measured by four questions.

The first question is; “how often do you feel too tired after work to enjoy the things you would like to do at home?” The second question is; “how often do you find that your job prevents you from giving the time you want to your partner or family?” And the third question is; “how often do you find that your partner or family gets fed up with the pressure of your job?” For the second and third questions the option (“don’t have partner/family”) was rated as a missing value. This means that the respondents who do not have a partner or family are excluded from this research. The fourth question is; “how often do you keep worrying about work problems when not working?” All questions were measured on a 5-point scale from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“always”), with the other option (“don’t know”) rated as a missing value. These questions were computed as one variable (α = 0,733).

Work pressure. The variable ‘Time pressure’ is measured by looking at the question; “I never

seem to have enough time to get everything done in my job.” This question was measured on a 5-point scale from 1 (“agree strongly”) to 5 (“disagree strongly”), with the other option

(“don’t know”) rated as a missing value.

Also the number of hours overtime worked is , according to the literature, a measure of work pressure. Therefore, three questions were used and computed into one variable to research irregular working hours. The questions; “How often does your work involve working evening/nights?”, “How often does your work involve having to work overtime at short notice?” and “How often does your work involve working at weekends?” The first two questions regarding working evening/nights and overtime at short notice were measured on a 7-point scale from 1 (“never”) to 7 (“every day”). With the other option (“don’t know”) rated as a missing value. The question regarding working at weekends was measured on a 5-point scale from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“every week”), with the other option (“don’t know”) again rated as a missing value. To compute these three questions as one variable, the last question had to be computed into a 7-point scale question. Thereafter the questions were computed as one variable called ‘Irregular working hours’ (α =0,630).

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13 be included to measure the variable ‘Work pressure’. The answer to the statement; “I can decide the time I start and finish work.” will be used to measure the amount of autonomy an employee experiences. This statement is measured on a 4-point scale from 1 (“not at all true”) to 4 (“very true”), with the other option (“don’t know”) rated as a missing value. Another measure of work pressure can be the difference between the total contracted hours of an employee and the amount of hours an employee actually works.

The variable ‘Overtime’ is measured by investigating the difference between the questions; “What are your total ‘basic’ or contracted hours each week (in your main job), excluding any paid and unpaid overtime?” and “Regardless of your basic or contracted hours, how many hours do you normally work a week (in your main job), including any paid or unpaid overtime.”

Another measure of work pressure is the ‘Preferred working time’ of an employee. This variable is measured by investigating the difference between the questions; “What are your total ‘basic’ or contracted hours each week (in your main job), excluding any paid and unpaid overtime?” and “How many hours a week, if any, would you choose to work, bearing in mind that your earnings would go up or down according to how many hours you work?”

Gender. Gender is, within this questionnaire, measured by the answers participants give to the

question “Gender” (0 is ‘male’ and 1 is ‘female’).

Control variables. The following control variables are used in this study: ‘Age’, ‘Education’,

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14 influence the way work pressure influences the work-life balance of people. Therefore, this variable is controlled for in this research by looking at whether the respondent has ‘Children living at home or not’. To control for the ‘Working time’ of the respondents a distinction will be made between part time and full time workers. So by using the question; “total contracted hours per week in main job, overtime excluded”, a distinction will be made by looking at respondents who work, small part-time; 0-12 hours per week, big part-time; 13-32 hours per week and full time; more than 33 hours per week.

3.4 Statistical analysis

First a descriptive analysis was performed to map the characteristics of the

participants. The mean and standard deviation were computed for the continuous variable; ‘Age’. The dichotomous variables, ‘Gender’ and ‘Children’, and the ordinal variable

‘Working time’ were described using the percentages of the number of participants within a group (e.g. ‘Female’, ‘Small part time’) The other ordinal variables (i.e. ‘Education’, ‘Health’ and ‘Income’) were described using modes and corresponding percentages.

The first goal of this study was to determine if work pressure has a negative influence on work-life balance. First, Pearson’s correlations between the dependent variable (‘Work-life balance’), the independent variables (‘Irregular hours’; ‘Time pressure’; ‘Work autonomy’; ‘Overtime’ and ‘Preferred working time’) and the control variables (‘Gender’; ‘Age’;

‘Working hours’; ‘Health’; ‘Income’; ‘Children’; ‘Education’) were calculated to examine the associations between these variables. Second, to further study the relation between ‘Work-life balance’ and the independent variables, linear mixed models (LMMs) were used. The reason to use this multilevel model is that data from different countries is used. The differences between these countries can be controlled for with this multilevel model. To find out whether the variables controlled for are of influence for this research, first the dependent variable 'Work-life balance’ was added to the model together with the control variables (‘Gender’; ‘Age’; ‘Working hours’; ‘Health’; ‘Income’; ‘Children’ and ‘Education’) as fixed factors. Also ‘Country’ was added account as a random factor. To study the relation between ‘Work-life balance’ and the independent variables, the variables ‘Irregular hours’, ‘Time pressure’, ‘Work autonomy’, ‘Overtime’ and ‘Preferred working time’ were added one by one to this model. By checking the likelihood ratio, it is possible to see whether adding the variables improves the fit of the model.

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15 participants in all variables were examined using an Independent-Samples T-test. Second, LMMs were used to examine if gender affects the relations between the independent variables and ‘Work-life balance’. The interaction between ‘Gender’ and the other independent

variables used were added to the model one by one, to find out whether ‘Gender’ affects the relation between ‘Work-life balance’ and the variables of ‘Work pressure’.

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16 4. Results

4.1 Descriptive statistics

The descriptive statistics of the participants are shown in Table 1. On average

participants were 42.53 years old (SD = 11.11), with a gender distribution of 49.5 % male and 50.5 % female. A majority of participants (75.0 %) worked full time. Also, a majority of the participants (51.7 %) had children living at home. The most common level of education was a three-tier upper secondary education (23.5 %). The most common feeling participants had about their household’s income was ‘living comfortably on present income’ (46.8%). Lastly, a majority of the participants (51.8 %) rated their health as ‘good’.

Table 1: Participant characteristics (n = 5034)

Variable n (%) or mode (%)

Gender: Male 2492 (49.5 %) Female 2542 (50.5%)

Age 42.53 (11.11)1

Working time: Small part time 117 (2.3 %) Big part time 1139 (22.6 %) Full time 3778 (75.0 %) Children at home: Yes 2601 (51.7 %) No 2433 (48.3 %)

Education IIIb, lower tier upper secondary (23.5 %)

Health Good (51.8 %)

Income Living comfortably on present income (46.8%)

1 _{Mean (SD).}

4.2 Relation between variables

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17 Table 2: Correlations between independent, dependent and control variables

Mean (SD) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 1. Work-life balance 2.63 (0.75) 1 2. Irregular hours 2.98 (1.45) 0.33* 1 3. Time pressure 2.83 (1.17) -0.37* -0.15* 1 4. Work autonomy 1.97(1.11) 0.03* -0.06* -0.10* 1 5. Overtime 3.29 (6.96) 0.22* 0.32* -0.15* 0.14* 1 6. Preferred working time 1.32 (10.01) 0.06* -0.07* -0.05* 0.05* -0.18* 1 7. Gender 0.50 (0.50) 0.02 -0.10* -0.04* -0.09* -0.13* 0.,01 1 8. Age 42.53 (11.11) 0.00 -0.10* -0.03* 0.06* -0.01 0.11* -0.01 1 9. Working hours 2.73 (0.49) 0.12* 0.06* -0.09* 0.14* 0.02 0.32* -0.34* -0.01 1 10. Health 4.00 (0.76) -0.15* 0.02 0.02 0.10* 0.02 -0.02 0.00 -0.15* 0.06* 1 11. Income 3.36 (0.69) -0.10* -0.01 0.00 0.20* 0.08* 0.11* -0.01 0.05* 0.08* 0.22* 1 12. Children 1.48 (0.50) -0.08* 0.01 0.06* -0.04* 0.01 -0.02 -0.03 -0.00 0.05* -0.03* 0.06* 1 13. Education 4.49 (2.83) 0.11* 0.05* -0.11* 0.12* 0.07* 0.02 0.04* -0.03* 0.06* 0.12* 0.12* -0.03 1

Method of analysis: Pearson’s correlation. * Significant association.

4.3 Relation between work pressure and work-life balance

The first goal of this study was to determine if work pressure has a negative influence on work-life balance. Within the first model (LMM 1) the dependent variable, ‘Work-life balance’, is predicted only by the control variables. The control variables ‘Working hours’, ‘Education’, ‘Health’ and ‘Income’ were found to be significant positive predictors of ‘Work-life balance’. Furthermore, the control variable ‘Children’ was found to be a significantly negative predictor of ‘Work-life balance’. The control variable ‘Age’ did not significantly contribute to the prediction of ‘Work-life balance’.

The second model (LMM 2) consists of the control variables and the independent variables. The independent variable ‘Time pressure’ was found to be a negative predictor of ‘Work-life balance’, whereas ‘Irregular hours’ was a significantly positive predictor of

‘Work-life balance’. The independent variables ‘Overtime’ and ‘Preferred working time’ were also found to be positive predictors of ‘Work-life balance’. These outcomes support

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18 Table 3: Coefficients of the predictors of work-life balance

LMM 1 LMM 2 Variables b SE b SE Intercept 3.052* 0.105 3.400* 0.101 Age -0.001 0.001 -0.000 0.001 Working hours 0.190* 0.021 0.099* 0.020 Health -0.149* 0.014 -0.140* 0.013 Income -0.077* 0.016 -0.086* 0.014 Children -0.139* 0.020 -0.113* 0.018 Education 0.033* 0.004 0.020* 0.003 Time pressure -0.187* 0.008 Irregular hours 0.126* 0.007 Work autonomy 0.001 0.009 Overtime 0.012* 0.001

Preferred working time 0.005* 0.001

Country 0.005 0.003 0.004 0.002

N 5034 5034

- 2 Restricted Log Likelihood 10950.85 9700.13 Residual variance 0.514* 0.010 0.401* 0.008 Intercept variance 0.005 0.003 0.004 0.002

Dependent variable: Work-life balance.

Fixed effects: intercept, age, working hours, health, income, children, education, time pressure, irregular hours, work autonomy, overtime, preferred working time. Random effect: country.

* Significant association.

4.4 Differences between genders

The results of the examination of the differences between gender are shown in Table 4. On average male participants work significantly more than female participants. Male

participants also worked significantly more ‘Irregular hours’ than female participants. Additionally, male participants scored significantly higher on ‘Time pressure’, ‘Work

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19 Table 4: Tests of differences between genders

Variables Male1 (sd) Female1 (sd)

Work-life balance 2.62 (0.74) 2.65 (0.75) Irregular hours 3.14 (1.44)* 2.83 (1.44)* Time pressure 2.88 (1.15)* 2.78 (1.20)* Work autonomy 2.07 (1.13)* 1.86 (1.08)* Overtime 4.21 (7.23)* 2.39 (6.56)* Preferred working time 1.22 (10.29) 1.43 (9.73)

Age 42.61 (11.17) 42.46 (11.06) Working hours 2.90 (0.34)* 2.56 (0.56)* Health 4.00 (0.75) 4.00 (0.76) Income 3.37 (0.67) 3.35 (0.70) Children 1.50 (0.50) 1.47 (0.50) Education 4.38 (2.66)* 4.59 (2.98)*

Method of analysis: Independent-Samples T-test. 1

Mean values.

* Significant association.

4.5 Influence of gender on relation between work pressure and work-life balance The second goal of this study was to determine if gender affects the relation between work pressure and work-life balance. Table 5 shows five LMMs, whereby LMM 3 contains the effect of ‘Gender’ on ‘Work-life balance’, and LMM 4 contains the interaction effect of ‘Time pressure’ and ‘Gender’ on ‘Work-life balance’. LMM 5 contains the interaction effect of ‘Irregular hours’ and ‘Gender’ on ‘Work-life balance’, and LMM 6 contains the interaction effect of ‘Overtime’ and ‘Gender’ on ‘Work-life balance’. Lastly, LMM 7 contains the

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20 Table 5: Coefficients of the predictors, including interactions with gender, of work-life balance LMM 3 LMM 4 LMM 5 LMM 6 LMM 7 b SE B SE B SE b SE B SE Intercept 3.312* 0.101 3.324* 0.104 3.323* 0.103 3.316* 0.101 3.316* 0.101 Age _{0.000 0.001} _{0.000 0.001} _{0.000 0.001} _{0.000 0.001} _{0.000 0.001} Working hours _{0.146* 0.021} _{0.146* 0.021} _{0.147* 0.021} _{0.146* 0.021} _{0.144* 0.021} Health _{-0.142* 0.013 -0.142* 0.013 -0.142* 0.013 -0.142* 0.013 -0.142* 0.013} Income _{-0.088* 0.014 -0.088* 0.014 -0.089* 0.014 -0.089* 0.014 -0.089* 0.014} Children _{-0.113* 0.018 -0.114* 0.018 -0.113* 0.018 -0.113* 0.018 -0.113* 0.018} Education _{0.019* 0.003} _{0.019* 0.003} _{0.019* 0.003} _{0.019* 0.003} _{0.019* 0.003} Time pressure _{-0.183* 0.008 -0.186* 0.011 -0.183* 0.008 -0.183* 0.008 -0.183* 0.008} Irregular hours _{0.129* 0.007} _{0.129* 0.007} _{0.125* 0.009} _{0.129* 0.007} _{0.129* 0.007} Work autonomy2 _{0.004 0.008} _{0.005 0.009} _{0.004 0.009} _{0.004 0.009} _{0.005 0.008} Overtime _{0.013* 0.001} _{0.013* 0.001} _{0.013* 0.001} _{0.012* 0.002} _{0.013* 0.001} Preferred working time _{0.004* 0.001} _{0.004* 0.001} _{0.004* 0.001} _{0.004* 0.001} _{0.005* 0.001} Gender = Male _{-0.117* 0.020 -0.138* 0.047 -0.139* 0.042 -0.124* 0.021 -0.114* 0.020}

Gender = Female 01 01 01 01 01

Time pressure x Gender

= Male 0.007 0.015

Time pressure x Gender

= Female 01

Irregular hours x Gender

= Male 0.007 0.012

Irregular hours x Gender

= Female 01

Overtime x

Gender = Male 0.002 0.003

Overtime x

Gender = Female 01

Preferred working time x

Gender = Male -0.002 0.002

Preferred working time x

Gender = Female 0 1 Country 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 N 5034 5034 5034 5034 5034 - 2 Restricted Log Likelihood 9664.33 9664.10 9663.99 9663.68 9663.31 Residual variance 0.398* 0.008 0.398* 0.008 0.398* 0.008 0.398* 0.008 0.398* 0.008 Intercept variance 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002 0.003 0.002

Dependent variable: Work-life balance.

Fixed effects: LMM 1 - LMM 5: intercept, age, working hours, health, income, education, working pressure, irregular hours, autonomy, overtime, preferred working time, gender. LMM 1: no interaction effect. LMM 2: time pressure x gender. LMM 3: irregular hours x gender. LMM 4: overtime x gender. LMM 5: preferred working time x gender.

Random effect: country. * Significant association 1

Parameter is set to zero because it is redundant.

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21 5. Discussion

5.1 Main findings

The first hypothesis of this research, whether work pressure has a negative influence on the work-life balance of employees, is largely supported. The results show that, when employees are working irregular hours, this has a negative influence on work-life balance. Thus, when employees do not have to work overtime, in weekends or evenings, they have a better work-life balance. Also, when there is a big difference between the time an employee has to work according to his contract and the time an employee actually works (overtime included). This is of negative influence on the work-life balance of employees. And when there is a difference between the time employees would like to work and their contractual working hours this is also of negative influence on their work-life balance.

Another result of this research is that when employees experience high time pressure in their jobs, this is of negative influence on their work-life balance. However, work

autonomy, thus whether employees can decide when to start or finish work, is of no significant influence on their work-life balance.

Other results show that working hours and education influence work-life balance in a significant way. It shows that working more hours and having a higher education influences the work-life balance of employees in a negative way. So working less hours and having a lower education predicts a better work-life balance. Also, subjective general health and the way people feel about their income is of influence on the work-life balance of employees. The results show that when employees have a good subjective general health this is of positive influence on their work-life balance. Furthermore, when employees feel good about their income this is also of positive influence on work-life balance. Thus when people are living comfortably on their present income, they have a better work-life balance.

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22 does show that in the interaction between gender and work-life balance, there is a difference in gender. So maybe this difference depends on other factors that create a difference between men and women.

But in the end, the second hypotheses of this research is not supported. The results show no significant interaction effects of gender with either time pressure or irregular hours on the work-life balance of employees. Furthermore, there are also no significant interaction effects of gender with the amount of overtime worked and the hours employees prefer to work. So the question whether being a man or woman will weaken or strengthen the relationship between work pressure and work-life balance is not supported.

5.2 Comparison with previous studies

The first hypothesis of this research is not fully supported. Since all variables used to measure work pressure are proven predictors of work-life balance, except for work autonomy.

According to Bakker et al. (2004) work pressure is a job demand, with psychological, physical, organizational and social aspects which requires effort and with which

psychological or physiological costs are associated. Following that definition, different perspectives of work pressure were used in this research, namely the amount of irregular hours and the amount of overtime employees have to work, the amount of time pressure employees experience and the time employees prefer to work in comparison with their contractual hours. That these different perspectives are of negative influence on the well-being of employees was already supported by Loscocco & Spitze (1990).

The negative influence of irregular working hours and the amount of hours overtime worked on work-life balance found in this research was already described in the theoretical framework of Eikhof et al. (2007). Eikhof et al. (2007) explain in their research that working long hours can cause problems in the situation at home because of the responsibilities at home. When there are long working hours it is very difficult to combine these responsibilities at home with those at work.

The study of Henly and Lambert (2014) shows the relation between the extent to which employees do not have enough time to get everything done in their job and time-based work-life conflict. They argue that unpredictable working time makes it difficult for

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23 be less when employees do have time pressure in their jobs, confirm this. Also Frone et al. (1997) and many other authors (Greenhaus & Beutell,1985; Vodanoff, 2004; Eikhof et

al.,2007), found a negative influence of work pressure on the work-life balance of employees. The results of this study show that when there is a big difference between preferred working hours and actual working hours of an employee this is of negative influence on their work-life balance. This is supported in the study of Dahm et al. (2015) who found that differences between preferred and actual time allocations in work activities are negatively related to psychological well-being and work satisfaction.

Referring to the demands-control model of Karasek (1979), high job demands or work pressure, are of positive influence on the aroused state of an employee, only when this

employee has high autonomy or control in their job. Therefore, it was assumed in this research that autonomy would be of influence as a part of work pressure. However, in this research autonomy turned out the be of no significant influence on the work-life balance of employees. In earlier research of Voydanoff (2004) autonomy was expected to be more important for the facilitation of work towards their life besides work, instead of the conflict of work-to-family. Also, the study of Casper, Allen and Poelmans (2014) shows that in low power distance cultures, which are studied in this research, autonomy improves the

psychological strain caused by work-life conflict. The main argument of Billing et al. (2014) is that autonomy in an employee’s job allows them to combine demands at work and at home and will therefore lower work-family conflict. However, the result of many studies do not support this argument (e.g. Grzywacz & Marks ,2000; Andreassi & Thompson, 2007). There are mixed effects found of autonomy on the improvement of work-life balance (Casper, Allen and Poelmans (2014). The results of the study from Grzywacz & Marks (2000) show that lower levels of autonomy at work are associated with a negative consequence from work to family.

Voydanoff (2004), also states that in the studies of Batt & Valcour (2003), Clark (2001) and Parasuraman et al. (1996), job autonomy was not related to work-to-family conflict. In the study of Batt & Valcour (2003) they also imply from literature that autonomy in an employee’s job should result in the ability for an employee to control decisions about where, when and how to integrate family responsibilities. However, in their results they see no effect of autonomy on work-family conflict, contrary to the expectations.

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24 Grzywacz & Marks (2000) seems the most logical outcome. When an employee wants to balance his work and life-roles, the way in which an employee can decide when to start or finish work, would be of influence in the way the time at home can be spend.

The second hypothesis is not supported by this research. The different roles men and women identify themselves with and the way they identify with their work were arguments to assume that there is a difference in the way gender influences the negative relations of work pressure on work-life balance (Powell and Greenhaus, 2010). From the results of the interaction between gender and work pressure variables on work-life balance there is no difference been found between men and women. Thus regarding this study, gender does not significantly moderate the direct relation between work pressure and work-life balance of employees.

Also the development and evolvement of family and work compositions were arguments to assume the influence of gender (Duxbury and Higgins, 1991). However, all models show no confirming results that the interaction between gender and the different variables, used to measure work pressure, were of significant influence on work-life balance.

In the test of differences between genders of this research can be seen that there is no significant difference between gender looking at work-life balance. However, looking at some crucial variables (‘Irregular hours’, ‘Time pressure’, ‘Work autonomy’, ‘Education’) there is certainly a difference between men and women. Men work significantly more irregular hours, do experience less time pressure then women and have more autonomy. They also have significantly lower education levels than women. From the different outcomes for men and women you would imply that women have a lower work-life balance than men, when there is work pressure. Yet, this is not the case.

This raises the question why gender does not moderate the relation between work pressure and work-life balance, when there are differences in work pressure between men and women. This could partly be explained by the different roles men and women have at home and in their job. This could be of big influence on the way they experience work pressure and the way they balance their responsibilities at home and at work. Cha (2010) said that it is hard to compare gender differences. Because women are still expected to have household duties as their primary responsibility, whereby this is secondary for men. This suggests that men and women make other choices regarding their work. This might explain why the fact that men are working more overtime, weekends and evenings is of no significant influence on work-life balance.

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25 not supported in this research might be because women and men value the aspects of work differently and act accordingly. The study of Bielby & Bielby (1984) about work

commitment, sex-role attitudes and women’s employment, shows that for most women it is important that characteristics of work must fit with the demands of the role of mother and wife. However, women who seclude themselves from these traditional expectations for women should have greater work commitment and do have another appreciation of work and family roles (Bielby & Bielby, 1984). It could be that currently more women are employed and at this time there is a difference in the way employment is offered (Verma et al. 2013). But the way men and women see and value their roles as employees might be the same as they previously were, regarding the ‘traditional’ family-model (Bedeian et al, 1988) and therefore it might be hard to compare the work pressure of men and women.

The results also showed that men have less time pressure in their jobs than women. This could be a result of the outcome that men have more autonomy, thus can decide when they start and finish work. This could be of positive influence on time pressure in their job.

5.2 Theoretical and Practical implications

The influence of gender on the relation between work pressure and work-life balance is still not fully clear. The article of Casper, Allen and Poelmans (2014) shows that it differs between gender-egalitarian contexts. Whereby in low gender-egalitarian contexts it was reported that men had a better work-life balance than women, but this was not reported in high gender-egalitarian contexts. This study adds value to the existing literature in different ways. It shows that gender does not interact with work pressure and therefore does not influence work-life balance. Even though the literature tells us a lot about how women still put their priority towards family roles. In this study it is found that being a men or women does not enforce or weaken the relationship between time pressure, working overtime or irregular hours on the work-life balance of people. Therefore, it expands the literature on work-life balance and the influence of gender on its relation with work demands.

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26 good way. However, the results of this study show that autonomy does not have a significant effect on how people balance their work and life.

Third, from this research, there can be assumed that women still have more responsibilities at home than men. Therefore, it would be harder for women to combine a high demand job with household duties and childcare. From this assumption, it is interesting for organizations to have a closer look towards the design of jobs for women and men. And take this ‘traditional’ family model into account. For employees, men and women, on the labour market, I would recommend them to monitor their work-life balance, together with possible employers, by creating good working conditions in advance. In order to make it possible for men and women to combine work responsibilities, but also responsibilities at home.

5.3 Strengths, limitations and suggestions for future research

This research has several strengths. First, the data is derived from a large dataset and it includes respondents from different countries. By using the article of Anttila et al. (2014) I could make a selection, out of the dataset of the European Social Survey, of countries who are approximately the same as the Netherlands regarding employment systems. Therefore, the results of this study are generalizable among these countries. Also because of this large dataset, where not only questions about work pressure or work-life balance were included but several other subjects, the answers given to the questions used for this research might be less biased.

Second, in this research a lot of different perspectives of work pressure are discussed. Time pressure and irregular/overtime hours are aspects that are often mentioned in the literature. However, in this study more aspects of work pressure are considered, whereby this study gives a more comprehensive picture of work pressure and how it influences the work-life balance of employees.

This study was controlled for by a lot of variables. This has led to a better overall picture of the answers to the hypotheses.

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27 Furthermore, in this study autonomy was taken as a part of ‘work pressure’. However, autonomy itself can also have influence on the other variables used to define ‘work pressure’ in this research. Therefore, in future research, autonomy could be taken into account as an interaction effect with time pressure, irregular hours and the hours an employee prefers to work, instead of a direct predictor of work-life balance.

Second, some variables were computed into one variable, in order to include different questions and make one comprehensive variable. By doing this, differences in the answers to those questions cannot be examined anymore. Also the Cronbach’s alpha’s of some of those computed variables were on the low side. Therefore, some information is lost in this study. Thus, a suggestion for future research is to compose a questionnaire by the researcher himself, whereby all questions are exactly based upon the variables that are going to be studied.

For future research I would suggest to investigate the different values men and women attach to in their job. From this research, there can be said that there is probably a difference in how men and women appreciate their work-life balance. My suggestion is to further develop and study this phenomenon.

Another suggestion is to further investigate the effect of autonomy on work-life

balance. Therefore, a more comprehensive view of autonomy should be taken into account, so that the outcome might confirm the results of most of the existing literature. Also the

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28 6. Conclusion

The aim of this study was to find out whether gender would influence the relationship between work pressure and work-life balance of employees. Whether being a woman would strengthen this negative relationship and being a man would weaken this relationship. Based on the results of this study, the negative relationship between work pressure and work-life balance is confirmed. Only autonomy of employees was of no influence on their work-life balance. Literature on this subject has shown mixed results. That gender would be of

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33 Appendix A

Syntax File SPSS analyses

Computing and recoding variables:

Dependent variable

 Work-life balance

COMPUTE worklifebalance=(trdawrk + wrywprb + jbprtfp + pfmfdjba) /4. EXECUTE.

Independent variables

 wrkwe (5-point scale)  wrkwe_goed (7-point scale) COMPUTE wrkwe_goed=wrkwe /5 *7.

EXECUTE.

 Irregular working hours

COMPUTE work_irregular=(wrkwe_goed + wkovrtm + wrkengt) /3. EXECUTE.

 Overtime

COMPUTE Overtime=wkhtot - wkhct. EXECUTE.

 Preferred working time

COMPUTE Prefered_working_time=wkhct - wkhsch. EXECUTE.

Control variables

 Werk_uren_opgedeeld

RECODE wkhct (0 thru 12=1) (13 thru 32=2) (33 thru Highest=3) INTO Werk_uren_opgedeeld.

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34

 Country (string)  county_goed (numbers)

RECODE cntry ('NL'=1) ('DE'=2) ('BE'=3) ('FR'=4) ('FI'=5) ('DK'=6) ('SE'=7) INTO country_goed.

EXECUTE.

 Health recoded (answers turned)

RECODE health (1=5) (2=4) (3=3) (4=2) (5=1) INTO health_goed. EXECUTE.

 Income recoded (answers turned)

RECODE hincfel (1=4) (2=3) (3=2) (4=1) INTO income_goed. EXECUTE.

 Gender recoded RECODE gndr (1=0) (2=1). EXECUTE.

Participant selection

 Deleting participants with missing values DATASET ACTIVATE DataSet1.

filter off. use all.

select if(not missing(pfmfdjba)). execute.

DATASET ACTIVATE DataSet1. filter off.

use all.

select if(not missing(trdawrk)). execute.

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35 filter off.

use all.

select if(not missing(jbprtfp)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wrkhrd)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(nevdnjb)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wrkengt)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wkovrtm)). execute.

use all.

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36 DATASET ACTIVATE DataSet1.

filter off. use all.

select if(not missing(dcsfwrk)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(gndr)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(agea)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(chldhm)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(eisced)). execute.

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37 select if(not missing(hincfel)).

execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(health)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wkhct)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wrywprb)). execute.

use all.

select if(not missing(wkhtot)). execute.

use all.

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38

 Age (18-63) and working USE ALL.

COMPUTE filter_$=(RANGE(agea,18,63) & pdwrk = 1).

VARIABLE LABELS filter_$ 'RANGE(agea,18,63) & pdwrk = 1 (FILTER)'. VALUE LABELS filter_$ 0 'Not Selected' 1 'Selected'.

FORMATS filter_$ (f1.0). FILTER BY filter_$. EXECUTE.

Statistical tests

 Descriptive statistics

FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=gndr agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld chldhm eisced health_goed income_goed

/STATISTICS=STDDEV MEAN MODE /ORDER=ANALYSIS.

 Pearson’s correlation CORRELATIONS

/VARIABLES=worklifebalance_goed workirregular_goed nevdnjb dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time

gndr agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced /PRINT=TWOTAIL NOSIG

/STATISTICS DESCRIPTIVES /MISSING=PAIRWISE.

 Independent sample T-test T-TEST GROUPS=gndr(0 1) /MISSING=ANALYSIS

/VARIABLES=worklifebalance_goed workirregular_goed nevdnjb dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time

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39

 LMM 1 (control variables only)

MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm

eisced

/CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1) SINGULAR(0.000000000001) HCONVERGE(0,

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE)

/FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced | SSTYPE(3) /METHOD=ML

/PRINT= SOLUTION TESTCOV

/RANDOM=country_goed | COVTYPE(VC).

 LMM 2 (control variables + time pressure)

eisced nevdnjb

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

 LMM 3 (control variables + time pressure + irregular hours)

eisced nevdnjb work_irregular

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40 /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb work_irregular | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

 LMM 4 (control variables + time pressure + irregular hours + autonomy) MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm

eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb work_irregular dcsfwrk | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

 LMM 5 (control variables + time pressure + irregular hours + autonomy + overtime) MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld

health_goed income_goed chldhm

eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk Overtime

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb work_irregular dcsfwrk Overtime | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

(41)

41 MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld

health_goed income_goed chldhm

eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time /CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1)

SINGULAR(0.000000000001) HCONVERGE(0,

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb work_irregular dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time | SSTYPE(3)

/METHOD=ML

 LMM 7 (control variables + independent variables + gender)

MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed gndr WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed

chldhm eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time /CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1)

ABSOLUTE) LCONVERGE(0, ABSOLUTE) PCONVERGE(0.000001, ABSOLUTE) /FIXED=agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed chldhm eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time gndr

| SSTYPE(3) /METHOD=ML

/PRINT=SOLUTION TESTCOV

 LMM 8 (control variables + independent variables + gender + gender*time pressure) MIXED worklifebalance_goed BY country_goed gndr WITH agea Werk_uren_opgedeeld health_goed income_goed

chldhm eisced nevdnjb workirregular_goed dcsfwrk Overtime Prefered_working_time /CRITERIA=CIN(95) MXITER(100) MXSTEP(10) SCORING(1)